The world is focusing on research to secure competitiveness in robot development, such as the introduction of artificial intelligence, ahead of the 4th industrial revolution. However, some academics have pointed out that if a nuclear war breaks out, it will be related to the development of artificial intelligence. Tesla founder Elon Musk said the race for dominance in artificial intelligence technology would be the cause of World War III. A report published by the Rand Institute, which specializes in US military affairs, supports this view. Doug Irving, author of the Rand Lab blog, said, "Recent advances in artificial intelligence technology have given rise to machines capable of learning and thinking."

One of the most popular movie franchises of our time is the "Terminator" series, launched back in the early 1980s and featuring six-time Mr. America bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger as a futuristic humanoid killing machine As noted by Great Power War, the backstory to the film is that the creation of the nearly-invincible cyborg Terminators stemmed from a "SkyNet" computer system that controlled U.S. nuclear weapons and "got smart," eventually seeing all humans as its enemy. So, in one fell swoop, the system launched its missiles at pre-programmed targets, which, of course, invited a second-strike counter-launch and created a nuclear holocaust that nearly destroyed all of humankind. While the Terminator series never really identified the'smart' SkyNet computer system as having artificial intelligence, some years later after AI became more of a thing it was understood that's the kind of system the fictional SkyNet operated. The "machine-learning" aspect of AI is how SkyNet "got smart" one day and launched the nuclear payloads it controlled. But the Terminator series are just movies, right?

Microsoft chief Brad Smith issued a warning over the weekend that killer robots are'unstoppable' and a new digital Geneva Convention is required. Most sci-fi fans will think of Terminator when they hear of killer robots. In the classic film series, a rogue military AI called Skynet gained self-awareness after spreading to millions of servers around the world. Concluding that humans would attempt to shut it down, Skynet sought to exterminate all of mankind in the interest of self-preservation. While it was once just a popcorn flick, Terminator now offers a dire warning of what could be if precautions are not taken.

When it comes to nuclear weapons and the Cold War, everything old is new again. Old treaties against the creation of long range nuclear weapons are dead and Russia is working on new nukes it promises can strike the United States in record time. Two experts have an idea how to counter the new Russian threat--turn over control of America's nuclear weapons to artificial intelligence. In an article for the military blog War on the Rocks, nuclear policy wonks turned college professors Adam Lowther and Curtis McGiffin, proposed making it easier for the President to launch nukes and advocating for an American, artificially intelligent "Dead Hand." "Dead Hand" is a Russian fail-deadly (like a fail-safe, but everyone dies), first deployed during the Cold War that ensures Russia's nukes fly if the country is attacked, even if no one exists to launch them Nuclear deterrence hinges on the theory that no country is willing to launch a nuke because it knows that rival countries will retaliate in kind. "Some ideas cross into bad science fictionland" Lowther and McGiffin suggest that, thanks to Russia's new nuclear weapons, the credible fear that America could retaliate with a nuclear strike is disappearing.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere. The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials familiar with the research told Reuters there are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike. If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources. The sources included U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the research is classified.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere. The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials familiar with the research told Reuters there are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike. If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources. The sources included U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the research is classified.

As technology has progressed, humans have become ever more powerful. With this power comes great opportunity and great risk. Nowhere is this clearer than in the potential of artificial intelligence. But a new report from the RAND corporation suggests that our misconceptions about what the technology can do may be as dangerous as the technology itself. If you're a singularity believer, according to the RAND report, "Superintelligence would render the world unrecognizable and either save or destroy humanity in the process." A world with human-level AI could be unimaginably different to the world of today--and difficult to make predictions about.

It is easy to confuse the current geopolitical situation with that of the 1980s. The United States and Russia each accuse the other of interfering in domestic affairs. Russia has annexed territory over U.S. objections, raising concerns about military conflict. As during the Cold War after World War II, nations are developing and building weapons based on advanced technology. During the Cold War, the weapon of choice was nuclear missiles; today it's software, whether its used for attacking computer systems or targets in the real world. Russian rhetoric about the importance of artificial intelligence is picking up – and with good reason: As artificial intelligence software develops, it will be able to make decisions based on more data, and more quickly, than humans can handle.

Movie history is filled with computers that make us miserable. Unlike today's computers that make our lives dreadful, like the little ones in our pockets eager to sell out our privacy for a nickel, or crash when we need them most, yesterday's computers were their own character in each film. Everyone knows how rude HAL got at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In The Aries Computer (1972, a mysterious Vincent Price film that may have not been filmed or released, part of the Zodiac series) the reported plot was this: It's 2013 and a supercomputer named Aries has become a ruling force, and humans need to figure out how to take their power back. Later came films like Terminator (1984), with it's hive-mind Skynet keeping humans under its virtual thumb.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sounded off about artificial intelligence in front of students during an open lesson Friday. He claimed that a nation who dominated the AI race could rule the world. Tech icon Elon Musk responded to Putin's claim Monday morning via suggesting that AI could start World War III. Putin posited that the country that harnessed the power of artificial intelligence could lead the way in global affairs. He said that AI offered limitless potential which could pose potential threats.